SOMERVILLE - The allegations against Jeffrey Vanderbeek in a former Somerville High School coach's lawsuit have been dismissed.

Former Somerville High School football coach Christopher Casamento and his wife, Patricia Casamento, filed a lawsuit against the Somerville Board of Education, Somerville High School and various other school officials claiming that the defendants "engaged in a conspiracy," subjecting him to "an intolerable, abusive, and hostile work environment."

Vanderbeek, who is the current head coach of the high school football team, was named in the original lawsuit, which was filed in May 2017, but was dismissed as a defendant after Casamento voluntarily dismissed Vanderbeek through a motion approved in October.

Before orchestrating the Somerville football program’s remarkable turnaround, Vanderbeek was best known as majority owner of the New Jersey Devils and for being the driving force behind the building of the Prudential Center in Newark, which houses the Devils following the team’s move from the Izod Center in East Rutherford.

Vanderbeek sold his controlling stake in the Devils in August 2013 for a reported $320 million.

A star running back at Bridgewater-Raritan East High School before playing at the College of William & Mary, Vanderbeek lived until 1969 on East Spring Street, a few blocks from Somerville’s Brooks Field. Vanderbeek’s father, Gus, a 1948 graduate of Somerville High School who was a football and track star, is a member of its Athletics Hall of Fame. Returning to Somerville as football coach was a homecoming for Vanderbeek.

In January 2015, the Somerville Board of Education, by an 8-1 vote, approved Vanderbeek to be hired for $1 per year as co-head football coach at the high school with Casamento, who the previous year had been named the school’s third head football coach since 2006. Board member Dianne Durland cast the lone dissenting vote without comment. Casamento's stipend was $11,557.

No Somerset County school has had greater success on the football field than Somerville, whose once-proud tradition was overshadowed prior to Vanderbeek’s hiring by a 22-game losing streak that extended to 25 games in his first season as co-head coach.

Last season, the Pioneers ended a 23-year sectional championship drought, winning the Central Group III title while running their record over the past two seasons under Vanderbeek as Somerville’s sole head coach to 21-2.

The sectional title was the school’s seventh and its championship appearance was its 13th in 22 playoff berths.

Six years before he was hired to coach football at Somerville, Vanderbeek made a donation to his father’s alma mater that enabled the school to upgrade its athletics facilities.

Casamento, who, in addition to serving as the head football coach, held positions as a special-education teacher and weight room supervisor at Somerville High School, is claiming that he was wrongfully terminated from his positions in June 2016.

Before being hired at Somerville High School, Casamento served as a football coach at high schools in New Brunswick and Bound Brook. He left a tenured position at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North for the job in Somerville, according to the lawsuit.

His contract was not renewed shortly after Vanderbeek was hired, according to the lawsuit, which also named Athletic Director Kyle Franey as a defendant.

Casamento said that his rights were violated by the Board of Education and its employees in terminating his contract.

He is claiming that he suffered economic damages because he was unable to apply for other coaching position because of the timing of his termination. Casamento is also claiming that he suffered mental and emotional distress.

Casamento is seeking compensation, according to the lawsuit, in lost wages, benefits, insurance and pension coverage and any other fringe benefits of his employment.

Franey deferred all questions about the lawsuit to Somerville Schools Superintendent Timothy Teehan.